Dear Colleagues, It is a great pleasure for me to invite you to join the 12th EUROPAD Conference, that is scheduled to be held in Leiden, The Netherlands on May 27-29, 2016. The mission of Europad has always been to promote the exchange of knowledge and interactive updating within the scientific community of addiction medicine, but also to spread an illness-centered conception of addictive disorders, heroin addiction standing as a long-dating prototype. Thereby, the structure of meeting has always tried to propose systematic updating on different issues from a common biomedical viewpoint.
Special attention will be given to the issue of misuse and diversion of opioid maintenance medications, and to pain treatment in addicted patients or in patients at risk for prescription opioid abuse and dependency, both being widely debated questions.
This year separate symposia will be dedicated to a bunch of "hot" topics, particularly the unmet needs of women with opioid use disorders during their reproductive age, opioid treatment as a possible tool in psychiatric patients, future regulations for agonist maintenance treatments of opioid dependence in Europe. Discussion about the identification of a specific psychopathology of substance use disorders will be addressed, taking into consideration the linkage with mood disorders from the full blown to the temperamental level and PTSD spectrum. Psychological therapies and interventions in opioid treatment patients will also be discussed as closely related to the disease stage and to the current state of disease expression.
I’m looking forward to meeting you all in the beautiful city of Leiden!